Pharmacist Dilip Chauhan at Benjamin Chemist in Stoke Newington. Photograph: Antonio Curcetti

Stoke Newington has one of the biggest ratios in the country of small independent businesses to chain stores.

One of the great things about living and working in Hackney is the varied backgrounds of the inhabitants of the borough.

To complement this, local traders are able to provide for local requirements. And they often have something alternative, equivalent or superior for less money.

So how does health fit in with you and your local independent retailers? Very simply: you are what you eat.

Your independent retailer will supply you produce that they have got to know over the generations. Be it Asian, Afro-Caribbean, Mediterranean or other, they will have fresh produce and dry goods that are ready for use now.

Without even getting in to the argument of whether products are organic, or costly or value for money, you need to bear in mind that when you buy food you are investing in your health.

We should all consider eating fewer processed foods, less fully-cooked and more raw vegetables, better quality cuts of meat (which are lower in fat), and more oily fish such as mackerel.

Fresh meat, fish, fruit and vegetables are ready to eat now, not stored or processed for up to several months in nitrogen-controlled containers or warehouses. Have you ever wondered how fruit, vegetables and meat have lasted so long when transported from far away?

Your local fresh produce has not been stabilised for a longer shelf life by adding extra fat, sugar and salt. Your body simply does not need these stabilising additives.

So do your health a favour and visit your local shops.

Related:

Shoppers: put your money where your mouth is

Daily bread: master baker Simone at e5 Bakehouse. Photograph: Antonio Curcetti

It’s a grey but mild Sunday morning when I turn under the railway arches by a remarkably quiet London Fields.

In the secluded surrounds of Mentmore Terrace, between the usual bustle of the park and Mare Street, the contents of Arch 395 come as quite the surprise.

The e5 Bakehouse is now in its second home under these arches, having moved from one to another in May of this year. A large open kitchen engulfs most of the inner arch. In the front, a long bench-table on the left calls on customers to hop up on either side for coffees and eats in a communal environment.

A few months ago they sold summer quiches, salads and risottos. As the days shorten the winter stews are beginning to be bowled up at quite a pace, though baker Ben MacKinnon promises that whilst the seasons change their great sandwiches remain.

Ben opened the e5 Bakehouse last year having attended a course at the School of Artisan Food (SAF) in late 2009. He received great encouragement from both the group at SAF in Nottinghamshire and closer to home as members of the local community have found the e5 Bakehouse to be “a hang out, a place to chew the fat”, as Ben describes it.

They use sourdough to yeast their bread, heralding it as an ingredient which makes the loaves long-lasting, delicious and easier to digest. In addition to the traditional baguette, ciabatta and multigrain, Hackney Wild, Raisin and Walnut and Borodinsky bread are all now available.

In full view, as it is, Ben’s kitchen is buzzing as the orders continue to come in. The e5 Bakehouse is now a team of 15 including two cyclists who make deliveries all around the borough.

Formerly an energy and sustainability consultant, Ben has put prior knowledge to good use in the baking business. The Rocket Oven under the previous arch was hand built from waste materials which were found, free and recycled.

The e5 Bakehouse also cooks up a savoury bread pudding using left over bread and has worked closely with the Soil Association to provide bread-making classes in local schools, further adding to their reputation as a champion of sustainable production.

The e5 Bakehouse is open from 7am to 7pm every day and they offer a baking class each Saturday for groups of ten. Ben is also considering starting shorter evening classes.

This month they’re inviting people to come down for work Christmas parties, to learn how to bake and enjoy what’s on offer under their arch. No need to fear though, the mince pies and Christmas cakes on sale will be in the safe hands of Ben and his team.

Read the blog by Ben and the team.

Find out more about courses at:

e5 Bakehouse
Arch 395
Mentmore Terrace
Hackney
E8 3PH
Open 7 days a week, 7am – 7pm
info@e5bakehouse.com
07548 300 244

Fowl is fair: Andrea feeds the chickens at FARM:Shop. Photograph: Antonio Curcetti

You gather your friends on a Friday evening. There’s a pot of hummus surrounded by carrots and celery. Question: “Hummus is made from chickpeas, right? Where do they come from?” Reply: “a can!” As urban dwellers, many of us no longer know how things are grown.

Hackney is in fact a green borough with space to grow and glean all manner of edibles. But what happens during the months when the temperature simply does not allow for outdoor cultivation?

Walk into FARM: Shop at 20 Dalston Lane and you’ll find the answer. Upon ringing the bell, callers enter into a café with produce straight from the walls and roof of this Victorian terrace: chickens, tomatoes, vertically-grown basil, lettuce and a huge fish tank facing the street.

There are also shiitake mushrooms growing on a shelf and a polytunnel at the back is used for a range of purposes.

You can get a tour of the building from volunteers and freelancers (six people work on the third floor). “We help out to run the place, it gives you a good feeling”, says Kristin, making yet another latte.

FARM: Shop is the creation of engineer Paul Smyth, graphic designer Andy Merritt and the sociologist Sam Henderson who came together to turn a derelict space into an urban farm.

The trio won £6,000 from Hackney Council to renovate the building.  “This was hardly enough, but we managed to get some extra support”, says Andy Merritt. “Now we manage to employ one and a half people; all the money that we get from the shop goes straight back into it, it is a closed circle”, says Merritt.

Merritt agrees that the space may initially seem somewhat odd to those unaccustomed to being surrounded by hydroponics. “At first you have a strange feeling but then you start to enjoy the homeliness of the space”.

The farm-in-a-shop has caught the attention of locals and global trend-spotters alike. It was featured in Young London 2011 Best Designs of the Year, and the team behind FARM: Shop has been commissioned to create a garden for the Gwangju Design Biennale in South Korea this autumn.

They also have plans to expand closer to home. “Now, that we know much more about urban agriculture we want to go bigger and turn a whole disused warehouse or a factory into a big urban farm”, says Merritt.

And despite receiving international critical acclaim, the glowing shop is mainly for those who live nearby

Merritt is particularly appreciative of the growing local interest in FARM: Shop.  “I am optimistic. If it is still running and seems to be doing OK, I think that interest in and urban farming and shop itself will only grow”.

As winter nights descend, there is plenty to get involved in. You can consider taking part one of the Grown Sunday! Activities, hire space in the shop for an event, or come along to a party in the polytunnel.

Farm: Shop
20 Dalston Lane
London
E8 3AZ

On a mission: Marisa Leaf, managing director of Hubbub

Delivery food occupies a lowly status in the UK. Takeaways are synonymous with a miserable-looking floppy pizza or a greasy curry and while grocery deliveries – boutique or otherwise – are on the up, they haven’t quite yet surged to the levels of success enjoyed over in the US, the convenience capital. So what’s going wrong? I mean, come on, how easy are these people trying to make it for us?

One reason us Brits aren’t biting on the meal delivery front is that the food often falls short of restaurant quality, yet holds a painful price tag anyway. But in Hackney, this needn’t be the case, according to enthusiastic New Yorker Evan Graj, founder of East London-based delivery service My Salivation.

His concept is simple – food from your favourite local restaurants delivered by hand for a small fee and with no compromise in quality. “Our aim is to dispel the myth that delivery food is bad,” Evan says.

Evan is a foodie and former banker who stepped out of the square mile to pursue his big ambition last November and with the help of a web development team, My Salivation – a tongue-in-cheek take on ‘my salvation’ – is now online. Users enter their postcode and are then presented with a list of local restaurants signed up to the service.

Once a selection is made from the restaurants regular menu – with no extra costs added – the process begins. “We have an SMS gateway to communicate with the restaurant and customer,” says Evan. “We provide people with a realistic delivery time, so get rid of that age-old delivery question: ‘where the hell is my food?’”

Most cuisines are covered in the offering, with the exception of sushi – which Evan is unremittingly attempting to change. Broadway Market’s popular Italian Bella Vita is listed, along with Shoreditch vegan café Saf, Brick Lane Indian restaurants and Hackney’s famous Vietnamese eateries. “Hackney is a foodie borough,” says Evan. “While people out west may look for the most expensive high end restaurant, east Londoners want what’s authentic.”

In the grocery delivery world, London has also been ramping things up a notch. Here, being bulk delivered enough toilet roll to last a nuclear apocalypse is especially appealing for the large proportion of us without access to cars. But reluctance to buy fresh produce without having the option to handpick it ourselves, thus guaranteeing the quality, has left a gap in the market for more premium services.

The homely vans of organic trailblazers Abel and Cole are a common site around Hackney and a throng of successors such as Highbury Barn Deliveries and Hubbub is hot on their heels. Hubbub acts as a kind of wholesome foodie go-between. They deliver to your home, but only from high-end local independent shops.

Marisa Leaf, managing director of Hubbub explains: “Our local butchers, bakers and fishmongers are struggling to compete with the big multiples. That matters because these independent businesses make our communities thrive; they employ local people and local services, enhance the quality, choice and control we have over the food we buy and reduce the distance we need to travel to shop.

“I realised that lots more people would buy from their local independents if it was as easy as shopping at the supermarket; starting Hubbub was the way to make that possible.”

Hubbub currently covers north and west Lond-on, with plans to expand, and delivers food from such esteemed purveyors as the Ginger Pig, La Fromagerie and the E5 Bakehouse. They take your shopping list, do all the leg work and deliver it all in one go, and as with My Salivation there is no extra charge. The trend harks back to the halcyon days of the milk float, or the village shop who would box up your weekly order, a somewhat quaint nuance in an otherwise rapid-moving ‘need it now’ world.

Grass roots businesses are making ripples in consumer habits in Hackney, but as Evan says, it’s a change in people’s attitudes that will make a lasting difference.

My Salivation founder Evan Graj flanked by his deliverers, Shaon Ali (L) and Waqar Ahmed (R)

Netil360 rooftop bar. Photograph: Creative Network Partners Ltd

As most bars across the city batten down the hatches for the winter, there is one that is bucking the trend.

The Netil360 rooftop bar in London Fields is embracing the cold front with a brand new al fresco cocktail bar and music venue.

Hot cocktails and fur coats are on hand to assist visitors in the battle with the elements as they emerge through a Victorian wardrobe onto the 8,000-square-foot roof terrace with 360 degree views of London.

Leo Lawson O’Neil, the director of Creative Network Partners which manages the 94 art studios on the premises, admits “it’s radical to open a rooftop bar in winter”.

But it is also unique and that is the appeal: “What’s special is the scale, the size and the quality of the untouched views of the city.”

A ‘festival feel’ adds to the attraction. A large tent with a small stage area presents folk and unplugged talent while inviting yurts lure visitors with comfortable seating and more live acts.

The rooftop project is something Leo has had in mind since he acquired the lease two years ago, and he is determined to achieve his dream of incorporating a spa with pop-up saunas and hot tubs in the space.

Looking forward, punters will also be able to ditch the fur coats as the terrace is adapted for distinct spring and summer projects.

In the meantime though, the venue is up and running and open for 15 events over the coming months.

Check the Netil360 Facebook page for dates and opening times and look out for Halloween and bonfire night parties.

More information at facebook.com/Netil360.

Photograph: Creative Network Partners Ltd

Deli owner Theo Fraser Steele in his Victoria Park shop.Photograph: Tim Sullivan

Sitting on the roundabout halfway down Victoria Park Road, The Deli Downstairs proudly bears its name on a smart black and white swinging sign.  And it’s got a lot to be proud of too, having recently come second in the Olives et al Deli of the Year competition.

Looking around the wooden shelves crammed full of interesting spices and baskets overflowing with organic produce, it’s not difficult to see why. Originally underneath another shop across the road (hence the name) the deli has been in its new home for about a year now.

Light and airy with broad, bleached floorboards, the Victorian building also hid a secret treasure.  During renovations, a frieze of stickers from Edwardian biscuit tin lids was discovered behind a false wall.  A trawl through the archives revealed that the shop was originally a grocers and the husband and wife team behind the Deli are proud to have restored it to its original purposes. A sepia photo on the wall shows the property as it was, with perhaps the very people who originally created the frieze standing outside the shop.

This is just one of many touches which key the ship into its local environment.  Many of the goods on offer are the result of customer requests and observations about what the area was lacking.  In fact the whole shop was borne of a realisation that Victoria Park was poorly served for certain ingredients.

After years of journeying to central London to find produce, ebullient owner Theo – a former chef – set about bringing delicacies much closer to home. “One day I sat own and made a shopping list of everything I wanted to buy and would go into central London for,” he says. “That was basically everything I started off buying for the shop, and it all grew from there.”

Today the range he stocks is certainly broad:  a huge selection of cheeses and continental meats sit in a counter stuffed with olives, fresh pesto and a whole host of other tasty things.  A mouth-watering selection of fresh quiches and cakes baked on-site offer quick options to take to nearby Victoria Park, whilst a range of pulses and pickles can be taken home for cooking something a little more complicated.

There’s everyday fare too – milk, eggs and bread are all available (albeit a very artisan sort of bread). With half a dozen organic eggs for £1.50, prices are comparable to some supermarkets and the shopping experience is a great deal more pleasant too.

The Deli Downstairs
211 Victoria Park Road
E9 7JN

Tel: 020 8533 5006
Twitter: @thedelidownstairs

Related: Victoria Park: a history

Counter culture: Co-owner Liam Casey. Photograph: Tim Sullivan

In late June, the Pacific Social Club opened its doors on Clarence Road, an unassuming little street just off Dalston Lane on the borders of Lower Clapton and Hackney Central.

Little did co-owners Liam Casey and Nico Atwater know what would befall the road in a few weeks’ time.

Both Casey and Atwater live locally and they had identified the need for good coffee in the area. The name, Atwater said, came from “a love for the islands in the Pacific”.

Then in early August as an already cool summer took a turn toward autumn, the pair found their fledgling venture at the heart of riots whose Hackney epicentre was Clarence Road.

It all kicked off on Monday 8 August, Casey recalls: “The police came around 1pm and told us they were expecting trouble. We got our shutters down and got out of here”.

“We came back at 6am [on Tuesday] fully expecting the place to be in ashes.”  However, The Pacific Social Club was left largely untouched by the riots which ravaged other parts of the street.

Whilst criticism of politicians has persisted, Casey says the sense of community has grown in the area.  “Everyone’s looking out for each other. The Tuesday after it happened there was a really nice atmosphere.”

A strange start to the life of a new business, perhaps, but the experience of the riots appears to have helped root the new café in the local community and to develop the street’s sense of camaraderie.

The Pacific is also a welcome addition to this part of town as a purveyor of coffee and food. The menu is modest and set to change regularly as they aim to source seasonal produce from local suppliers. Some of their ingredients have come from Ridley Road Market and come together to create a selection of genuinely interesting sandwiches.

I tried the lemon avocado with dukkah on a couple of slices of olive bread. It was a fine mix of flavours and the olives pleasantly made themselves known. Both the parma ham, fig and gorgonzola sandwich and the roast pepper, blue cheese and hummus on seeded toast were mighty tempting too.

On my next visit, I had an aesthetically perfect and flavoursome flat white followed by walnut carrot cake with pineapple, and a butter-cream topping. Beautiful.

The Pacific also offers savoury snacks, like Vietnamese summer rolls, and there is a small assortment of cakes and pastries present.

The best seats in the house are on the light, tiled area in the window. The cafe has chosen individual, modish furnishings, crockery and spoons (great spoons) and is decorated with matchboxes and vinyl sleeves from history.
The record player sets the mood in the venue and events are to be scheduled, making this more than a cafe. Casey said: “My friend’s got a recording studio in the basement. We’re trying to do a lot of music-based things and trying to start a mixtape label.”

A fundraiser for Japan that had originally been planned at the Pacific for late August has been put back to Saturday 17 September as the focus has now shifted to helping local businesses who were badly affected as a result of theft and damage during the riots.

These include Siva Kandiah of Clarence Convenience Store, where the till was emptied and stock was taken on the night of the worst rioting. The shopkeeper would have been facing ruin, says Casey, without the support of his neighbours and the local authority.

“The local council paid for all the work to be done on his shop and they were there straight away the following morning, which is wonderful. I’ve never been much of a fan of Hackney Council but they were on it. They were up here every day sorting it out for him.”

The Pacific Social Club
8 Clarence Road
Hackney
E5 8HB

August Bank Holiday weekend saw the official launch of the London Fields Brewery

If a dip in the lido leaves you feeling parched, try this for a thirst quencher: five bitters and a clean, crisp lager… though perhaps not all at once.

The first new brewery in Hackney since the 19th century threw open its doors to drinkers for three days over the long weekend last month. As well as a range of ales with names like Hackney Hopstar and Love Not War – a variety staff say they cooked up while barricaded inside the brewery during the Hackney riots – the London Fields Brewery boasts an exclusive London Fields lager.

The venture is the brainchild of partners Ian Burgess and Jules Whiteway, who met only met a few months ago after being introduced by a mutual friend after Ian returned from a holiday in Australia inspired to take up brewing. Ian already runs Climpson and Sons coffee shop in Broadway Market, where a tonne of coffee is roasted per week. He and Jules realised they shared ideas and attitudes and decided to study the brewing process in detail with the aim of setting up London Fields brewery together.

They employ traditional brewing techniques with an Antipodean twist; they source their hops from Australia, Tasmania and New Zealand. Ian said that he was excited with the new business, adding: “We are working in a growth area.” There are currently four independent microbrewers working in the wider east London area from Leyton, through Hackney to Bethnal Green.

The brewery is tucked away down a quiet little back street, Helmsley Place, a hundred metres from the railway side of the London Fields. Ian explained the brewing process, from the raw ingredients; hops, barley and malts, to the end product; finely crafted beer. That involves the brewing – which takes six to seven hours, fermenting, and lastly the conditioning, which has to be at least two weeks. The whole process can be finished in as little as three weeks.

Currently the brewery is only producing small quantities, but Ian is confident that by the end of the year they will have progressed to a 12-barrel brewery system. This will allow them to make up to 40 casks at a time – that’s 2,920 pints of beer.

A large and airy space with a yard at the front, inside the brewery is clean and light with brightly painted kegs stacked up at the front. It’s equipped with several stainless steel barrels for the lager and large wood panelled vats for brewing bitters.

London Fields Brewery
374 Helmsley Place
London Fields
E8 3SB

Growing Communities' organic salad leaves.

Salad leaves produced by social enterprise Growing Communities on their organic market gardens and Patchwork Farm in Hackney have been “highly commended” in this year’s Soil Association Organic Food Awards.

“We are really pleased that our salad has done so well in the Organic Food Awards – it’s a bit of a triumph for urban growing and for our hardworking growers, apprentices and volunteers” said Sara Davies, Growing Communities’ grower.

“It makes sense to grow produce like salad as close as possible to where we live – this award shows that urban produce is delicious as well as sustainable!”

Much of Growing Communities’ salad bags go into their community-led organic box scheme which has been running for over 15 years.

The salad leaves are grown in three market gardens, all based in Hackney parks, (Clissold, Springfield and Allens Gardens) and four micro-sites that make up the Patchwork Farm.  The sites are situated at the Castle Climbing Centre, St Paul’s Rectory, St Michael and All Angels Church and Hackney Tree Nursery.

In addition to the box scheme, Growing Communities now supplies over ten local restaurants, cafes and shops, including the E5 Bakehouse, the Three Crowns in Stoke Newington, Organic and Natural in Clapton, Happy Kitchen in London Fields and the Duke of Cambridge pub in Clerkenwell.

Further information about the box scheme, the Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market and how to join the volunteer programme is available from Growing Communities.

Related: Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market to move

Happy Kitchen founders Lisa Stockton and Ellie Pennington

A regal dollop of stewed organic rhubarb and palette-refreshing yoghurt oozes over a fan of spongy pancakes with homemade granola tumbling down its sides.

Hard as it may be to believe, this plate of deliciousness is entirely plant based, wheat-gluten-and-sugar free – as are all dishes at new London Fields eatery the Happy Kitchen Canteen.

In many respects Happy Kitchen is a foodie first not just for the borough but the entire capital. Opened on Sunday 17 July by childhood friends Lisa Stockton and Ellie Pennington, the duo’s robust nutritional and ecological ethics are entrenched in every aspect of the venture.

“I believe we’re a first for the UK,” says Stockton. “I haven’t found anyone else offering food this nutritionally pure and with this level of attention paid to being low impact and sustainable.”

It’s the entire Happy Kitchen package that makes it a unique proposition. The ingredients of their soups, salads, stews, hot pots and cakes are organic and, when possible, sourced locally from farms the duo have personally visited. Baked goods are sweetened with fruit syrups – never sugar – and they only use omega-rich oils such as hemp, flax, olive and coconut. All the water on the premises – even for washing the vegetables – goes through a reverse osmosis machine and is then re-mineralised before landing in the water jugs on the communal tables.

“By living a certain way we’ve experienced an abundance of health and well-being,” explains Stockton. “There’s no way we’d offer anything different to our customers from what we’d want to eat ourselves. It just wouldn’t make sense.”

“Lisa and I have been cooking together since we were in our early teens,” adds Pennington. “It’s been a dream to have a space in which we can share our passion and give people the full Happy Kitchen experience.”

The décor – so homely that on the day Hackney Citizen visited patrons were trotting about in their socks – similarly reflects the duo’s sustainability-grounded principles. The chairs were bought from a local pub and reupholstered using old coffee sacks. Rustic apple crates serve as storage. The wood used for the fixtures is either FSC certified or acquired from local tree surgeons. “We sourced as much as we could locally and by salvaging things that would have otherwise gone to the tip,” explains Stockton.

The piece-de-resistance of the establishment is the wall of rainbow-hued dried goods. Food staples including buckwheat, polenta, cocoa, rice flour, cocoa drops and cashews sit resplendent in tubs with olive oil and fruit syrup on tap. To reduce unnecessary packaging customers are encouraged to decant the fare into containers brought from home, but until they’ve got into the habit compostable take-away tubs are available.

Hackney residents may have already encountered Happy Kitchen. The business started in 2009 as a bakery in premises under the London Fields railway arches shared with two other start-ups, E5 Bakehouse and Mini Magoo cereal. They become renown for their guilt-free, nutritionally sound cakes, flapjacks, biscuits and brownies – the latter building up a cult following amongst the borough’s chocolate fanatics. The bakery has hosted visits from schools, adult learners and any other interested parties. Stockton and Pennington also give nutrition and cookery lessons to local community groups.

The expansion of Happy Kitchen – and the E5 Bakehouse which also has new premises next door to the canteen – marks a new era for Mentmore Terrace. Less than ten years ago it was run down area with burnt-out cars abandoned under the bridges a regular fixture. Today it is an up-and-coming foodie destination with a fitness studio and vintage furniture shop flanking the new eateries and remaining car garages.

Being able to serve both Hackney’s long-established community and the recent influx of middle-class creatives is a challenge Happy Kitchen are keen to meet. “We try to make everything we do as inclusive as possible,” Stockton explains. “For the quality of product our prices are very reasonable and we regularly host events, classes and talks for the local community. Food that gives health and well-being should be accessible to everyone.”

Happy Kitchen
393 Mentmore Terrace
E8 3PH

Opening times:
Mon-Fri 7am-9pm
Sat 9am-9pm
Sun 10am-6pm